The new kings of the castle march in

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It was “Who’s that?” day at the Scottish Parliament. Young, eager,
unrecognised, they are the faces we must get to know over the next five
years. Even Alex Salmond seemed bemused as his new members, many of whom
never dreamt they would be here now, came up, one after the other, to take
the oath, and begin finding out where they keep the levers of power.

The SNP wore white roses in their lapels — the “little white rose,” as Hugh
MacDiarmid reminds us, “that smells sharp and sweet — and breaks the heart.”
They did not, it is true, look heart-broken.